Online get-started pastry courses

[Starkman]

Hello all,

Okay, there are several online sites that will teach you the basics of cooking. One great example of a site that teaches you how to get started in learning to cook propertly is Free Culinary School. Of course, our own eGullet has excellent courses in the eGullet Culinary Institute. But most of the courses are about cooking and not baking.

What I want are some good sites (preferably with video and/or pictures) that teach you the basics of pastry and baking (and working with chocolate, and making candy, and . . . the whole kit and kabutal).

Cooking sites with courses and the like are a dime a dozen, but where are the baking sites???

Thanks much,

Starkman

[CanadianBakin']

Here's a link to videos with Julia Child. If you select breads and baked goods as your category it comes up with 16 pages of videos. Not exactly what you're looking for but it might be a start. I haven't used them recently but if I remember correctly a number of them are using recipes from "Baking with Julia".

Edited January 23, 2009 by CanadianBakin' (log)

[Starkman]

Here's a link to videos with Julia Child. . . .

Thanks very much. I'm surprised there aren't more suggestions. It seems to be confirming my suspicions: there's not much out there for crash-course baking instructions. Hmm! Something has GOT to be done about that!

Thanks again.

Starkman

[sugarseattle]

Of course practice is the best way to learn.

I have found the following books very helpful in the understanding of baking chemistry:

Baking Illustrated (by the cook's illustrated people)

Understanding Baking by Joseph Amendola

Both are great ways to understand the whys and hows of all categories of baking, and if you practice recipes every day, you'll be well on your way to mastering baking. Works good if you have a good audience to feed your test batches.

[gfron1]

I know you're looking for online courses, but maybe none of us know of any. I know for me, while I had a decent experiential foundation, but no schooling, eG and other forums are where I've really started to learn. And probably the best thing I ever did was bake my way through Amernick's book. Not that her book was exceptionally special, but it was interesting to me and by baking through it I learned so many techniques that I hadn't previously known. So my suggestion is get jazzed by a book, start baking, post your results and problems here and see where things go. The only benefit I see of a "course" is being held to deadlines, but eG is a good motivator if you make it so.

[Starkman]

I know you're looking for online courses, but maybe none of us know of any.

Oh, I didn't meant to sound insulting. Hek, if few are familiar with online courses and how-to videos for baking and candy making, well, that just means that there's a void in this arena that many could fill. We folk who are both learning to bake and who are...broke, would greatly appreciate it (and be willing to contribute something).

There's a guy named Jacob whose website freeculinaryschoolcom gives a great start for cooks who are green and just learning to cook. Jacob has several lessons covering basics which a beginner will eat up. He doesn't have any videos on the site (at least not that I have found), but there are pics. I was just hoping there was something along this line, along with how-to videos, in the baking / candy-making arena.

(Oh, and thanks, Sugarseattle, for noting the two books.)

Thanks again,

Starkman

[gfron1]

I didn't take it as insulting, so no worries. And if you're talking about videos v. online courses, there are more options. For confections start with Kerry Beal's video set.

[Starkman]

I didn't take it as insulting, so no worries.  And if you're talking about videos v. online courses, there are more options.  For confections start with Kerry Beal's video set.

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Excellent.

Thanks,

Starkman